imperialism
Dr. Burkhard Luber: “We are already beyond the point of no return what the destruction of the Earth is concerned”
Dr. Burkhard Luber. DR.
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: How do you explain the rise of the far right in Europe and elsewhere in the world?
Dr. Burkhard Luber: I see three explanations: A first explanation is that many people are not capable to accept that in the modern global world an increasingly wide spectrum of different cultures, beliefs and values exists. Many people have not learned the virtue of tolerance and the importance to find joint interests with different people, cultures and countries. Persons with such limited tolerance and small understanding of other cultures are always in danger to see foreigners as a threat for their own workplace, for their culture, etc. Lire la suite »
Liz Rowley: “The progressive and peace-loving peoples of the world need to unite to defeat capitalism and imperialism”
Liz Rowley, leader of the Communist Party of Canada. DR.
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: How do you analyze the results of the recent federal elections in Canada? Did the Communist Party of Canada achieve good results?
Liz Rowley: The election results – a minority Liberal government – are a reflection of a number of different things. First, widespread fear of a Conservative government and its policies of austerity, social conservatism, and its refusal to acknowledge climate change.
In the context of a first-past-the-post electoral system the electorate is usually forced to vote against what they don’t want, as opposed to the policies and parties they do want. In the 2015 election, the Liberals promised electoral reform – proportional representation – and that helped to get them elected. However, this is one of many promises the Liberals abandoned after they were elected. Lire la suite »
Prof. Richard Wolff: “Socialism represents the critical demand to extend democracy into the economic sphere”
Prof. Richard Wolff. DR.
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: You have done a very important work throughout these years and you wrote among other things this remarkable book New Departures in Marxian Theory that you co-signed with your colleague Stephen Resnick. In your opinion, is there not a need for a revolutionary interpretation of Marxism far off the beaten track?
Prof. Richard Wolff: Marx and Marxism were themselves overdetermined (in Althusser’s sense) by their social conjunctures. So too will be the next revolutionary interpretation(s) of Marxism. The current global crisis of capitalism, built on its global collapse of 2008-2009, plus the criticisms by Marxists of (1) the rise and fall of the USSR and (2) other early experiments in constructing « socialisms » will together produce those next revolutionary interpretations. On this let me direct you and your readers to two works: S. Resnick and R. Wolff, Class Theory and History: Capitalism and Communism in the USSR (Routledge, 2002) and also R. Wolff, Understanding Marxism (2019). Lire la suite »
Dr. Charles McKelvey: « Venezuela is a threat to the neocolonial world-system »
Dr. Charles McKelvey. DR.
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: You have written a very relevant and important book to understand the Cuban Revolution: The Evolution and Significance of the Cuban Revolution. In the light of your book, can we say that the Cuban revolution was very important for the emancipation not only of the Cuban people but of all the peoples of Latin America?
Dr. Charles McKelvey: I consider the Cuban Revolution to be a paradigmatic Third World Revolution. It has the dual character that essentially has defined Third World movements and revolutions: (1) an anti-colonial/neocolonial revolution that seeks the liberation of the nation from foreign imperialist domination, and (2) a revolution of social liberation, seeking the transformation of capitalist economic-political-cultural institutions. Lire la suite »
Robert Bibeau: “Capitalism is war”
Robert Bibeau. DR.
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: Reading your very informative and gripping book, « La démocratie aux États-Unis, les mascarades électorales » (Democracy in the United States, electoral masquerades), a question arises: is there really a democracy in the United States and what is the use of elections in the USA?
Robert Bibeau: Yes, there is a real democracy for the bourgeoisie in the United States as in all the capitalist countries of this world. There is obviously no popular-proletarian « democracy » in the United States or any other country. Do you believe that joining a bourgeois party of a multibillionaire and its relations – given its power of pressure, of its television channel and its administrative centers – is of the same « democratic » weight as the adhesion of my neighbor – a Proletarian – to a pseudo-socialist political party? There is only the bourgeois left to let it believe. American workers know it, they do not move to vote and « to use the false power of the voting pencil » nor benefit from a fanciful electoral power exclusive to the rich. Lire la suite »
Prof. Atilio Borón: “In order to counter the imperialist created chaos honest leadership and strong institutions need to be accompanied by an intense and well organized popular mobilization”
Prof. Atilio Borón. DR.
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: How do you explain the retreat of the left and the rise of the far right in Latin America, as we saw in Brazil with the election of the fascist and torturer Jair Bolsonaro and that of Mauricio Macri in Argentina?
Prof. Atilio Borón: There are many reasons, which I could only summarize here. First, the intensity of the American counter offensive to defeat progressive governments has been impressive. Macri was an unexpected gift, more due to the mistakes of Kirchnerism than to anything else. But the victory was very important for the US. Bolsonaro is the product of the PT demobilization established by Lula since the beginnings, the complete corruption of the judicial system that put in jail Lula and allowed Bolsonaro not to be present in the presidential debates, the staunch support of the hegemonic media and, of course, serious mistakes of the Lula/Dilma governments which believed that social policy and the extraction of millions from extreme poverty would be enough to change popular consciousness and make those people supporters of progressive policies. Lire la suite »
Dr. Tomasz Pierscionek: “Capitalism is a failing system unable to solve major global problems”
Dr Tomasz Pierscionek. DR.
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: You have worked on the theme of the Western Left. According to you, can we say that this left is in crisis?
Dr. Tomasz Pierscionek: The past decade of austerity, which has seen the rich get richer at the expense of everyone else and demonstrated that capitalism is a failing system unable to solve major global problems, provides an opportunity for the Left to demonstrate alternate programmes that benefit the majority rather than a wealthy and powerful minority. In Western Europe and the US, affected by years of indoctrination about the ‘failures’ of socialism, left-wing politicians and parties of labour have been cautious not too appear too left-wing and face the wrath of the rich and their media auxiliaries. In this way, they have failed to realise the potential of the Left to explain and advocate for socialist ideas and directly challenge capitalism. Far from being Marxists, as demonised by the media, the leaders of the Western Left have adopted the half-baked ideas of left of centre social-democracy – ie: let’s tinker at the edges of capitalism and smooth out its rougher bits whilst leaving its fundamental principles unchanged. Lire la suite »
